Nature and Art, November 1, 1866.] 
NOTES ON THE RED DEEB. 
177 
displayed by them in the manufacture of these 
simple but effective fishing contrivances, serve to 
show how much may be effected by small means 
well applied. The woodcut will give a better 
idea of their mode of construction than would 
any written description. From the hollow pearl- 
shell bait of the Polynesian Islanders, to the 
glittering spoon-bowl of the finished English fisher- 
man, the same principle of construction is taken 
advantage of, and almost the same movement 
through the water secured ; and whether the highly 
finished Limerick hook of O' Shcmghnessy s own 
make , or the fragment of fire-hardened root of the 
forest tree, carved by Indian ingenuity, is used, the 
pleasure to the captor of the scaly prize is much 
the same. Man is by nature a hunting animal, 
and his instinct, whether savage or civilized, is to 
catch something. 
NOTES ON THE RED DEER. 
rTlTIE Red Deer, the Cervus Elephas of Linnaeus, 
X appears to exist almost universally in Northern 
Europe, and in a considerable portion of Northern 
Asia. It is not found in America, although the name 
is given to the American Deer ( Cervus Virginianus 
of Baird), a species which closely resembles our 
Fallow Deer. In the Hudson’s Bay Territory it 
is also applied to the Wapiti ( Cervus Canacliensis), 
which in Canada is termed the Elk, the true Elk 
being there known as the “ Moose,” a confusion of 
names which has led to endless mistakes in narra- 
tives of sport and travel. The height of the British 
Red Deer may be averaged at three and a half feet. 
The average weight of a full-grown male is, accord- 
ing to Mr. Scrope, * about 25 stone, imperial. The 
males are called stags or harts, the females hinds. 
The female consorts with the male in her second 
year, carries her young eight months, and the 
young follow the mother about ten months. The 
young of both sexes is called a calf until six months 
old, when the horns of the males begin to appear, 
and they become brockets, staggards, and lastly, 
stags or harts. The males carry their horns ten 
months. 
Blumenbach, in his “ Comparative Anatomy,” 
asserts this annual reproduction of the horns in the 
deer species, to be “ one of the most remarkable 
phenomena of animal physiology.” His English 
translators, Lawrence and Coulson, have added a 
note on the subject, which we will here transcribe : 
“ The word horn, which is frequently applied in English 
to the antlers of the deer kind, as well as to the horns of 
other g-enera, would lead to erroneous notions on this 
subject. The antler is a real hone, it is formed in the 
same manner and consists of the same elements as other 
bones ; its structure is also the same. It adheres to the 
frontal bone by its basis, and the substance of the two 
parts being consolidated together, no distinction can be 
traced when the antler is perfectly organized. But the 
skin of the forehead terminates at its basis, which is 
marked by an irregular projecting bony circle, and there is 
neither skin nor periosteum on the rest of it. The time of 
its remaining on the head is about a year. As the period of 
its fall approaches, a reddish mark of separation is observed 
between the process of the frontal bone and the antler. 
This becomes more and more distinctly marked, until the 
connection is entirely destroyed. 
“ The skin of the forehead extends over the frontal bone 
when the antler has fallen. At the period of its regenera- 
tion, a tubercle arises and takes the form of the future 
* Scrope’s “ Deer Stalking in the Highlands.” 
VI. 
antler, being still covered by a prolongation of the skin. 
The structure of the part at this time is soft and carti- 
laginous ; it is immediately invested by a true periosteum, 
containing large and numerous vessels, which by the gradual 
deposition of ossific matter convert the young antler into a 
perfect bone. The vessels pass through openings in the 
bony circle at the foot of the antler, the formation of this 
part proceeding in the same ratio with that of the rest ; 
the openings are contracted and the vessels thereby pressed,' 
until a complete obstruction ensues. The skin and periosteum 
then dry and perish, and fall off, the surface of the antler 
remaining uncovered. At the stated period it falls off, to 
be renewed again, always increasing in size. The antler is 
shed in the spring, and ronewed in the summer.” 
,We may add, that while the horns are still 
tender, the animals are more than usually shy, and 
in the combats which often take place between the 
males, they appear carefully to avoid approaching 
their heads together, but, rearing themselves on 
their hind legs, fight desperately with their fore feet. 
There is another remarkable provision of Nature 
which we may here notice, — the spiracula, or ad- 
ditional holes for respiration, which are found in 
all the varieties of both the deer and antelope tribes. 
White of Selborne appears to have been the first 
among modem naturalists to notice this fact, which 
has since become generally recognized, although 
he quotes a line from the Greek poet Oppian, 
showing that the ancients were aware of the 
peculiarity.* 
“If some curious gentleman,” lie writes, “would procure 
the head of a deer, and have it dissected, he would find it 
furnished with two spiracula or breathing-places, besides 
the nostrils, probably answering to the pvmcta lacrymalia 
in the human head. When deer are thirsty, they plunge 
their noses, like some horses, very deep under water, while 
in the act of drinking, and continue them in that situation 
for a considerable time ; but to obviate any inconveniency, 
they can open two vents, one at the inner corner of each 
eye, having a communication with the nose. Here seems 
to be an extraordinary provision of Nature, worthy our 
attention, and which has not, that I know of, been noticed 
by any naturalist, for it looks as if these creatures could 
not be suffocated, though both their mouths and nostrils 
were stopped. This curious formation of the head may be 
of singular service to beasts of chase by affording them 
free respiration, and no doubt these additional nostrils are 
thrown open when they are hard run. Mr. Bay observed, 
that at Malta, the owners slit up the nostrils of such asses 
as were hard worked, for they being naturally straight or 
small, did not admit air sufficient to serve them, when they 
travelled or laboured in that hot climate. And we know 
* “ TsrpdCvpci ph'i£, m'ovpec Trvaiytn ciavXot.'’ 
N 
